HARRISBURG -- To Gov. Ed Rendell, increasing the state's tax on cigarettes and imposing new taxes on cigars and smokeless tobacco is a "no-brainer" way to bring in needed revenue.

But officials of tobacco companies opened a counterattack today, urging legislators to say "no way" to the governor's plan to generate an additional $100 million or so for the deficit-ridden state treasury.

In a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Gary McGuirk Jr., the third-generation owner of Liberty USA of West Mifflin, which sells cigarettes and other products to 1,000 convenience stores in the state, said the new taxes would create "a perfect storm" of damage to his and other companies.

The state's new ban on indoor smoking, the new "firesafe" cigarettes, which he said hurts the taste (and sales) of cigarettes, and a large increase in federal excise taxes coming in April would combine with the new Rendell tobacco taxes to hurt his profits.

He said raising the cigarette tax by 10 cents a pack to $1.45 a pack, plus the first-time taxes on cigars and smokeless tobacco, would lead to an increase in illegal sales out of car trunks, or purchases from other states, Indian reservations or over the Internet, all of which would decrease tax money for the state. He said he employs 330 people and some might lose their jobs if higher taxes send tobacco sales reeling.

John Nasser, co-owner of Obade Candy Co. of Kittanning, also opposed the new taxes. "Cigarettes and tobacco account for more than 78 percent of our gross profits," he told the committee. He said he already pays more than $2 million a year in various federal excise taxes and state income and other taxes.

Two officials of cigar companies, Keith Meier of Cigars International in Northampton County and Robert Levin of Holts Cigar Co. of Philadelphia, also complained.

Mr. Meier said he has 140 workers and was planning a $12 million expansion in the Bethlehem area but will reconsider if he's hit with new taxes. He said Pennsylvania and Florida are the only states that don't now tax cigar sales.

"We like Pennsylvania and we have a significant investment here," he said, but he might be forced to move his whole company to Florida if the Rendell plan is enacted.

Sales of cigars are "elastic," Mr. Meier said, meaning they will fall off if prices rise. "If the price goes up, consumption goes down," and this would be bad for his company and for state revenues.

Mr. Rendell got some support today from the Breathe Free Coalition, made up of the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society.

They said they "support closing the loophole on the other tobacco products, such as smokeless tobacco, cigars, cigarillos, blunts. etc. They are harmful and can be deadly. With the shortfalls in the state budget and tough economic times, now more than ever citizens are expecting decisive leadership to find missed state revenue streams."

A new Quinnipiac University poll released today showed overwhelming support for tobacco taxes.

Mr. Rendell has said that Pennsylvania is the only state without a tax on smokeless tobacco, which makes no sense to him, so he wants to close that loophole.

Even with a dime-a-pack increase in cigarette taxes, "The state benefits financially, and if it does deter some smoking, those people who smoke less benefit individually," Chuck Ardo, a Rendell aide, said.

The Senate and the House will have to vote on the higher tobacco taxes by July 1, the date when the fiscal 2009-10 budget of $29 billion is to take effect.

If the Legislature rejects the $100 million in additional tobacco taxes, it would have to find another revenue-raiser or make additional cuts in state spending. Mr. Rendell has already angered many recipients of state services by proposing $1 billion in cuts for 2009-10 and making additional reductions in spending will be politically risky. But so are new taxes.